“We had a final sensation on the third day, when Mr. Campbell, jeweller, of High Street, gave his evidence.  He said that on October 25th a lady came to his shop and offered to sell him a pair of diamond earrings.  Trade had been very bad, and he had refused the bargain, although the lady seemed ready to part with the earrings for an extraordinarily low sum, considering the beauty of the stones.

“In fact it was because of this evident desire on the lady’s part to sell at any cost that he had looked at her more keenly than he otherwise would have done.  He was now ready to swear that the lady that offered him the diamond earrings was the prisoner in the dock.

“I can assure you that as we all listened to this apparently damnatory evidence, you might have heard a pin drop amongst the audience in that crowded court.  The girl alone, there in the dock, remained calm and unmoved.  Remember that for two days we had heard evidence to prove that old Dr. Crawford had died leaving his daughter penniless, that having no mother she had been brought up by a maiden aunt, who had trained her to be a governess, which occupation she had followed for years, and that certainly she had never been known by any of her friends to be in possession of solitaire diamond earrings.

“The prosecution had certainly secured an ace of trumps, but Sir James Fenwick, who during the whole of that day had seemed to take little interest in the proceedings, here rose from his seat, and I knew at once that he had got a tit-bit in the way of a ‘point’ up his sleeve.  Gaunt, and unusually tall, and with his beak-like nose, he always looks strangely impressive when he seriously tackles a witness.  He did it this time with a vengeance, I can tell you.  He was all over the pompous little jeweller in a moment.

“’Had Mr. Campbell made a special entry in his book, as to the visit of the lady in question?’

“‘No.’

“’Had he any special means of ascertaining when that visit did actually take place?’

“‘No—­but—­’

“‘What record had he of the visit?’

“Mr. Campbell had none.  In fact, after about twenty minutes of cross-examination, he had to admit that he had given but little thought to the interview with the lady at the time, and certainly not in connection with the murder of Lady Donaldson, until he had read in the papers that a young lady had been arrested.

“Then he and his clerk talked the matter over, it appears, and together they had certainly recollected that a lady had brought some beautiful earrings for sale on a day which must have been the very morning after the murder.  If Sir James Fenwick’s object was to discredit this special witness, he certainly gained his point.

“All the pomposity went out of Mr. Campbell, he became flurried, then excited, then he lost his temper.  After that he was allowed to leave the court, and Sir James Fenwick resumed his seat, and waited like a vulture for its prey.